Here are the top 25 phrases to avoid - come on people, you can do better! (CCSS Level: Grade 8, Words: 284)

Jan 18, 2017 Science & Technology

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A huge number of firms were hacked over the course of 2016, and millions of passwords were stolen, leaving many people's privacy compromised. However a company called Keeper analysed the stolen passwords after they ended up in public hands. And guess what? Most people still aren't taking seriously the warnings against using common, easy-to-guess passwords.

The list published by Keeper, a password management company from Chicago in the USA, shows that huge numbers of people are using ridiculously simple passwords that don't safeguard their accounts at all. For example nearly one in five people use '123456'.

In fact 123456, 1234567, 12345678, 123456789 and 1234567890 are all to be found in the top seven. On top of that, four of the top ten passwords are six characters or less, making it much easier for cracking software to break in. Incredibly people are still using that old favourite 'password', which comes in at number eight on the list.

Researchers from universities and companies specialising in data protection have all created software algorithms that are able to guess passwords when hackers are able to obtain personal information, such as names and addresses. They have demonstrated their ability to correctly guess passwords over 73% of the time.

So have a look through the top twenty-five passwords listed below, and if you find yours there, change it now. Being hacked is no joke.